Transcript

Edmund: Do you ever find yourself doing things that you don’t want to do? Like gossiping about a coworker? Or waiting a year to renew your vehicle registration? Or eating the Chik-Fil-A breakfast sandwich of that one friend who’s late—even though you’ve already had one—and then your friends all show up and they start counting because your friend doesn’t know where his sandwich is, and they go around the room and say “How many have you had?” They ask you and you say “One.” Yeah…

Okay, maybe not all of those things are sins. But let’s talk about this because in the Lord’s Prayer, we pray “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”  So how do we pray this and actually live it out so that we can battle sin and temptation with Jesus?

So when we talk about temptation, we all probably can relate, right? We all experience this pull towards things we know we probably shouldn’t do. And that’s because we have this fallen human nature due to original sin. 

And see, I used to think that praying to God and saying “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” meant that we were asking God to take  care of it; that it was up to God whether or not we were tempted.

But imagine this magnet is you, and this is sin. And as we get closer to sin, there’s this pull. Yes, God can help us resist this temptation, but we do have some responsibility not to get too close willingly.

And here’s what the Catechism says. In paragraph 2846, it says: “This petition goes to the root of the preceding one, for our sins result from our consenting to temptation; we therefore ask our Father not to ‘lead’ us into temptation. It is difficult to translate the Greek verb used by a single English word: the Greek means both ‘do not allow us to enter into temptation’ and ‘do not let us yield to temptation.’”

We’re asking God for the grace to choose a different path. This is the particularly pernicious aspect of sin is that it’s not just the choice to sin that we need to be careful of, it’s also the choices before it—the choices way out here—when we choose to even start walking down this path; getting closer. And putting ourselves in a situation where we might be tempted, or where we know we’re going to be tempted.

And just like if you weren’t familiar with magnets, you don’t see the magnetic field. But you grow accustomed to how magnets behave. You learn to just discern how close you can get to this other magnet and not be affected—or at least be able to resist the pull.

Because the Catechism also says this. In paragraph 2847, it says: “The Holy Spirit makes us discern between trials, which are necessary for the growth of the inner man, and temptation, which leads to sin and death. We must also discern between being tempted and consenting to temptation.”

So one practical tip for avoiding temptation is….avoiding it. And Jesus wants us to realize that there might be situations in our lives we can’t control when temptation is placed in our path and we can’t avoid it. But we have to discern between this situation—which is a trial—and situations where we willingly put ourselves in positions where we will be tempted. 

So here’s the thing: Jesus wants to give us grace to discern those moments of temptation BEFORE they even happen. We need to ask God for grace and strength daily before—WAY before—we’re in situations like that. Sometimes, this path towards temptation and sin might start as just an idea that pops into your head, or a thought.

And one practical idea is to just pray that simple petition in that moment: “Lord, lead me not into temptation and deliver me from evil.” Or you can just  pray, “Get behind me, Satan, in the name of Jesus.” 

Another tip is that receiving the Eucharist strengthens our soul with grace so that we can resist temptation and sin AND better discern choices that are going to lead us there. And spending time with Jesus in Eucharistic Adoration; bringing these decisions that we’re thinking through to the Lord and asking Him for guidance, this can be a really powerful thing as well.

But here’s another one that has been a huge game-changer for me: St. Ignatius of Loyola’s work The Discernment of Spirits.” St. Ignatius spent a lot of time reflecting on these little movements of his heart; these thoughts; these things that would happen WAY before the moment of intense temptation or decision to choose between sin and virtue.

Over time, day-by-day through prayer, he began to become really good at discerning these movements. He has a lot of really great advice, but one way to start practicing this is to just 

simply pause for two minutes the same time every day and just reflect on: what’s going on in your heart? In your soul? In your mind? 

Take a moment to turn your attention to God and just ask yourself: “Lord, am I starting down a path towards temptation?” Are you feeling peaceful, confident, joyful? Are you feeling like you’re placing your trust in God? Or are you starting to feel agitated, anxious, and disconnected from the Lord?

And these are great moments to pause and ask God “Is this just a trial, or am I willingly choosing to place myself in a situation of temptation?” 

See, Jesus is teaching us in the Lord’s Prayer that battling sin and temptation and evil is not always big and dramatic. More often, it’s these small, ordinary moments when we’re called to greatness—as St. Ignatius reminds us. 

Imagine your life where you’re following the Lord moment by moment. And in these little decisions, you’re being guided to avoid temptation all together. 

Jesus is teaching us in the Lord’s Prayer to pray: “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil” and to pray this more often throughout our day. 

THIS is where the battle against temptation and sin begins. And those moments are when we begin to rely on the Lord to protect us. And this is how we battle temptation, sin, and evil with Jesus through prayer.